Yeah, that's right. It's been fourteen months since I last posted on this blog. The last posting was made on February 7th, about 13 days before my baby was born. Now he's in Florida with his grandparents and I'm catching up on my first loves: cartooning and graphic novelization. Here are the next two cartoons from the comic strip "Living with Parents." I've been experimenting with color. Too much color adds to a childish, unprofessional effect. Monochrome is much nicer but as you can see here the strips turned out waaaaay too yellow. Next time I am not coloring in the word balloons.Weebly is being strange about not letting me enlarge the cartoon so I'm going to try to get the 'toon linked to a larger copy in the archive corner. Here's hoping!

But first of all... why have I been so late updating my website. Well, there's be schoolwork, homework, baby work, sick husband work and constant stresses- both of the normal and abnormal kind. Most of all, I haven't been updating the website because it's not my job. It's a hobby, and it's a pleasure but a time-consuming pleasure only and not a job. I am not receiving money for posting here. I don't have crowds of happy fans. Heck, I don't think even my own mother checks this site, but that's to be expected considering she's now watching a beautiful-but-exhausting one-year-old child. I miss them both so much. Mother's day is coming up. If anyone is out there reading this, please do something wonderful for your mother. You don't know how much she has sacrificed to bring you into this world and take care of you.

Boy, that took a lot of work! I had another scare where I thought a second virus had insinuated itself onto my flash drive. Fortunately I've managed to re-scan the cartoons and it looks like they've managed to remain scannedon the drive and not skipped town when my back was turned. Phew! In other news I've been wandering around with Kim celebrating Lunar New Year. We've been stuffing ourselveswith various forms of rice cake and bean cake while making stilted converation in bad Korean .... or rather that was justme. Also we dropped by the Hyatt hotel, a huge party place twenty-odd years ago and still pretty hoppin' in my opinion,and jammed along with a cool band while gorging on massive piles of fruit. During the breaks band member sat by ourtable and chatted with us. Kim is a real social butterfly and tends to attract people in party-like situations. The guitaristfor the band, a small-boned Italien man, asked me when the baby was due. "Oh dear, is it really that obvious?" I asked.The joke fell flat so I just laughed and said: "Next week. I'm celebrating my last few days as a free woman." "Oh, very good!" the guitarist said and we clinked glasses. A lot of people were clinking glasses that evening. It was a very celebratory evening. The weather is starting to warm up noticeably. The sky is constantly cloudy, the air foggy and the snow starting-but only just starting- to melt. I was wondering if this temperature was normal for Seoul (it shares the same latitudinalspace as San Francisco) and my niece-in-law said that spring is supposed to start around this time so no worries. The above two strips can be found under the '"LwP archive' tabe at '"LwP" strip #29' and "'LwP" strip #30.'

These strips can be read if you click under the "LwP archive" tab and drag to the last strip. Despite a massive amount of snow that was dumped on Seoul yesterday (yes, yes, not really "massive" by the current standards of the Northeastern seaboard of the US... but still a lot!) the scanner place near my house has now opened! Ah... and for only 500 won I can bring new "Living with Parents" comics strips- fresh and crispy!- to your eyes again. Still, the snow was not a total loss. It made the alleyways creeping off the streets of the city absolutely beautiful and I could not resist walking a bit and taking photos. In "Family Guy" there is a joke where Brian the dog defends his girlfriend's sparse intelligence by talking about her photography. "She happens to be a very talented photographer." Stewie scoffs at this. "Oh, that is so lame! Any hot girl who can aim a camera thinks she's a photographer! 'Ooo! You took a black-and-white picture of a lawn chair and its shadow and developed it at "Save-On!" You must be so brooding and deep!'" While I'm not exactly a "hot girl" I do feel a bit like I'm cheating when I aim my cheap digital camera at a pretty image, click the button and come up with a beautiful picture. It's not like I'm drawing these pictures with my own hands.... I'm using a camera and pressing a button. I do secretly agree a bit with Stewie in this regard. I do acknowledge that I don't really know much about photography. There are probably complexities concerning the art form that I am missing. If I knew them, these pictures might be better. Still, enjoy!

The last picture comes dangerously close to Stewie's definition of lazy art photography.... except it's even lazier because I didn't snap it in black-and-white. I really wanted to climb up the hill at the end of the street but unfortunately the pavement was too dangerously slippery and steep for me... so I went home after taking a few photos. For some reason walking out there on the hills reminded me of a night I spent in Ashland, Oregon where I tried to find a place to set up a tent because the hostel was too full and the motel too expensive. I walked and walked, trying to find a bit of land that was hidden and not too obviously someone else's property because I didn't want to get arrested for vagrancy. I never found that bit of land and just ended up walking around until 6am when the doughnut shop opened and I went inside for some coffee and pastries. That was some of the best coffee and pastries I had had in my life. It was hot and comfortable and nearby I could overhear the conversation of several old men as they chatted about recent local events in a familier way that made it clear that their meetings were a daily ritual. "Now you have the important news for the day," one of the old men said to me before they left the shop. I thought that was sweet. But to return to walking around the hills of Ashland... it wasn't during the winter. I was a lot younger back then, single and not pregnant but for some reason wandering around yesterday reminded me of that earlier time. Enjoy the strips! As you can see from the second one, my obsession with pizza continues. God, it's just so delicious! Well, the plastic-wrapped pizzas at the bakeries are terrible, but hot pizza is awesome!

Sorry, life stinks. I have two new copies of the "Living with Parents" strips and they just have to remain in their hard-copy form until tomorrow morning when I'll be able to make it down to the copy place again.In the meantime, please enjoy two new "Jake's Pole" strips.

By the way, there's been a real screw-up with the order of these comics. I'd advise all readers to go back a few pages since I've replaced the previously-posted comics with new ones that more adequately serve the timeline. Sorry about the screw-up!

Never drink coffee on an empty stomach.Ugh, ugh.Never drink coffee and then read a Dan Savage advice column.I seriously think I may have to vomit. I'm about two flights of stairs away from an unlocked restroom. I'll have to dash up them in order not to regurgitate bilious yellow, coffee-scented fluid onto the floor of this PC Pang in front of hordes of "Starcraft"-playing boys eating take-out fish-on-a-stick and smoking cigarettes in this dim, close, underground lair. Why am I even talking about this, do I want to make myself throw up? Enjoy these next few "Jake's Pole" strips about whale meat. Oh God, there I go again.Sorry, enjoy these next few "Jake's Pole" strips until I finish inking in the next two "Living with Parents" strip.

I didn't know at the time that I wrote this strip (back in 2008, as the "throwaway joke" clearly reveals) if Anji was interesting enough to warrent continued appearances in the strip. I still don't know actually, still haven't made up my mind. I did want to flesh out Carol's character a bit more. She was coming off as a bit Stepfordish in the strip, smiling and attractive in a non-threatening way while standing quietly in the background. I wanted her to become a bit more... sinister as the strip progressed. Here, in her conversation with Anji, Carol reveals that she is exasperated with Jake's continued presence in her life but nothing more than exasperated... rather like a mother with a 25-year-old son who still lives at home. I wanted to expand on that a bit more.

Joyce's appearance is based on a breathtakingly-beautiful female extra I saw one time at the Fort Wayne Presbyterian Church's production of "Much Ado About Nothing." Yeah, her name is Joyce.

There are always a few moments in my day where I think about how lucky I am. When I stick my card in the ATM at Shinhan, withdraw money and note with satisfaction that there is still plenty left in the account. When I go shopping for groceries and see that I have everything I need for the week. When I successfully upload my latest cartoons onto my website or my relatives plan parties for me and Kim when we plan to return to the States. Or today where, after MONTHS AND MONTHS of withdrawel I finally, finally found a website that shows "Family Guy" episodes for free. I'm watching them now too :-) YAHOOOO! Meanwhile I should adhere to my duties as a webcartoonist and post more (again late, yes, I know) "Jake's Pole" comic strips. Enjoy!

It snowed yesterday in Seoul... and it really was beautiful. The snow was very wet and slippery because it was a little toowarm outside for serious winter weather. Nevertheless everything was incredibly picturesque. Most of the snow has melted now... or melted enought to not cause a bother to people in traffic. The mountains around theedge of the city, so magnificent yesterday, are now once again green-and-brown mounds. I miss living in the countryside. You can barely tell seasonal changes in the city, even with lots of snow.